Mothering Through Barbed Wire and Literacy Barriers: The Role of Literacy in Incarcerated Motherhood

Literacy in Composition Studies Dec 2024 RSS

Mothering Through Barbed Wire and Literacy Barriers: The Role of Literacy in Incarcerated Motherhood

JWells

Abstract

This article examines the presence of intensive mothering within incarcerated motherhood and how mothers in jail manage the constraints this ideology imposes on their mothering practices. Analyzing questionnaire data collected from mothers in a Texas county jail through a feminist maternal framework reveals that these mothers have been influenced by the ideology of intensive mothering to serve as their children’s educator. Considering the standard to educate one’s children reinforces the idea that mothers must apply an autonomous model of literacy to childrearing, this article examines the ways in which mothers feel compelled to seek further instruction in order to mother and communicate with their children effectively. This article also examines incarcerated mothers’ simultaneous use of literacy to (re)appropriate intensive mothering and (re)claim agency as mothers. 

Journal: Literacy in Composition Studies
Published: 2024-12-16
Topics: multimodality multilingual writers

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